USPTO Official “Optimistic” that Green Patent Fast Track will be Extended Again

Last week Robert Bahr, the Acting Associate Commissioner for Patent Examination Policy at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), said he was “optimistic” that the USPTO would extend the Green Technology Pilot Program if and when it reaches its 3000 application limit.

When the program gets very close to maxing out, the USPTO would likely go back to the patent examiners’ union to seek its approval to extend the program, Bahr said.

It was the examiners’ union concerns that the Green Technology Pilot Program would lead to too much extra work for patent examiners that led the USPTO to impose the 3000 cap when the program launched in late 2009.